Speaking while filling in for Keir Starmer at PMQs, the Deputy Prime Minister called out the ‘racist’ language used by Sarah Pochin during an appearance on TalkTV last month
PMQs: Tristan Osborne attack Reform’s running of Kent County Council
Nigel Farage has appeared to agree with David Lammy that the language used by a Reform MP “belongs in the dark ages”.
Speaking while filling in for Keir Starmer at PMQs, the Deputy Prime Minister called out the “racist” language used by Sarah Pochin during an appearance on TalkTV last month.
Responding to a caller’s question, the Runcorn and Helsby MP Ms Pochin had claimed it drove her “mad when I see adverts full of black people, full of Asian people, you know people who are anything other than white”.
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Mr Lammy claimed the language used by Ms Pochin belonged in the “dark ages”.
He said: “I see the honorable member for Clacton in his seat. Reform said, this may be the first time I’ve seen him at Prime Minister’s Questions. Reform said that Kent County Council would be the best advert for what a Reform Government would look like.
“They are delivering on the chaos that they promised, and on standards in public life, I say to the honorable gentlemen. I used to replace the honorable gentlemen on LBC, so we’ve known each other for many years. The disgraceful, racist language that we heard from a Reform MP last week belongs in the dark ages.”
As he finished, Mr Farage appeared to nod in agreement. It came following a question from Labour MP Tristan Osborne, about the shambles of the Reform led council in Kent.
The MP for Chatham and Aylesford had said: “The leader of my local council, Kent County Council has said they’re a shop window on Reform UK. With councillors facing criminal charges, inappropriate conduct and behaviour, a defection, five expulsions, a failed DOGE cost cutting drive and an authoritarian leader who shouts and swears at colleagues.
“Does the Deputy PM agree with me that the people of Kent deserve so much better? Is the Government going to ensure that we deliver higher standards in Government?”
Ms Pochin apologised for offence she may have caused by saying “it drives me mad when I see adverts full of Black people, full of Asian people”. Amid a major backlash, she said she hadn’t meant to offend anyone and the comments were “phrased poorly”.
But she doubled down on her claim that many adverts are “unrepresentative of British society”.